Home ›

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee consists of 23 members who are elected by the membership at each Annual General Meeting.

The Steering Committe helps members to guide the actions of Food Secure Canada, coordinating and overseeing projects and meetings. Steering Committee members serve for two years, and half of the positions are up for election at each Annual General Meeting. FSC aims to have Steering Committee members from different sectors and from all regions of Canada, including: Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies, BC, and Territories.

Here is a position description that outlines qualifications and responsibilities of FSC Steering Committee members.

Read minutes and reports from our AGM.

 

Steering Committee Members 2011-2012:

Read the biographies of FSC's steering committee members below.

The Executive Committee is charged with the day-to-day management of the organization. It consists of four sectoral directors, plus the officers (Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer). The sectors are:

Zero Hunger

Healthy and Safe Food

A Sustainable Food System

International Issues

Biographies of Steering Committee Members

(in alphabetical order)

Faris Ahmed

Faris is Director of Policy and Campaigns for USC Canada, and a strong member of the FSC Advisory Council. He has been with USC since 2005, focusing on ecological agriculture, biodiversity and genetic resources, industrial agriculture, agrofuels, food sovereignty and climate change. He brings global perspectives and networks to the table, and is currently active in the Rome-based Committee on World Food Security, the CBD Alliance (the international civil society network that follows biodiversity and genetic resources), and with ecological farmer and food sovereignty networks in the South. Being Ottawa based, he has done a fair bit of government relations, for the Peoples Food Policy Project, the Canadian Food Security Policy Group, and other policy networks He uses multiple creative media -- photography, film, video, and new social media -- as important tools for social change.

He worked on the original Coordinating Committee of the People's Food Policy Project, as well as the Communications Committee and the Management Team and took on much of the media work, particularly for the launch of Resetting the Table. In the past Faris has worked for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Oxfam, South Asia Partnership, and as a photojournalist covering environmental and fisheries issues based in Asia. He also lived in West Africa where he mostly drank tea under the trees, and learned Bambara phrases. Faris tries to stay sane between policy meetings by playing jazz and west african percussion.

 

Lauren Baker

Lauren Baker is a strong and active member of the FSC Advisory Council. She began as a animator for the Peoples Food Policy Project, and through her commitment and leadership was quickly invited to join the Management Team for the PFPP and subsequently the Management Team for Food Secure Canada in the transition period.

Lauren is the Coordinator of the Toronto Food Policy Council, and was formerly the founding Director of Sustain Ontario: The Alliance for Healthy Food and Farming. In 2011 she was named a Tides Canada Visionary for her work bringing farmers, food activists, businesses, food service providers and government together to find solutions to complex food issues. Lauren has a PhD  from York University and is a lecturer at the University of Toronto and a Food Security certificate course instructor at Ryerson. Lauren also likes to get her hands dirty —she was a co-founder of Toronto’s first certified organic urban farm and heritage seed company, started the Toronto Urban Beekeeping Cooperative, and worked with FoodShare as the Urban Agriculture Coordinator for over five years.  

Her dedication to the food movement, great diplomatic skills, and overall collaborative nature, would make her an ideal addition to the Food Secure Canada Steering Committee.

 

Dayna Chapman

Based in a remote community on "BC"'s Central Coast, Dayna has been chairing the BC Food Systems Network since 2009. She also coordinates food security programs for the Bella Coola Valley Sustainable Agricultural Society, advocates for farmers, fishers, hunters, harvesters, and food processors, and facilitates projects that promote public education around food issues and engagement in food democracy.

Dayna lives and works closely with friends and relatives in the Nuxalk Nation, and was a member of the Indigenous Circle for the People's Food Policy Project, in addition to being a PFPP Animator. She is very interested in the intersection of Indigenous and non-Indigenous food systems, how they touch, overlap, conflict, and complement each other, and pragmatically, believes both are essential pieces of this world we live in. She managed the Foodshed Analysis Project and the Foodshed Capacity Development Strategy for the Central Coast region, and is the convener and coordinator of the Central Coast Food Network.

In addition to the Peoples' Food Policy Project, Dayna has worked with Food Secure Canada in the Strategic Planning process, and was pleased to participate in a process that articulated some very clear direction for FSC and the "food movement" more generally.

 

Kathleen Charpentier

For the past thirty years, I have been farming in Central Alberta. During that time, we have grown conventional crops, operated a feedlot, and have been cow/calf producers.Twelve years ago, after hearing Sally Fallon speak at a grazing conference, we realized the missing piece on our farm: the quality of the food we were producing. That question completely changed the ethos under which we operated our farm. Our focus shifted to creating a relationship based market. From this background, we’ve now progressed to feed 150 families through farm gate sales. We grow beef, lamb, pork, eggs, and chickens. I am involved as a chapter leader for Weston A. Price and am frequently asked to speak to groups about grass finished meats and nutrition. I have organized and presented cooking classes to young mothers, introducing them to whole food basics such as preparing bone broths and using inexpensive cuts of meat to make a beautiful meal. My husband and I are members of Slow Food International and have attended Terra Madre in 2006 and 2008. I volunteer with the Agricultural and Rural Sustainable Alternatives Network (ARSAN). I am also the Vice-President of the Women’s Advisory for the National Farmers Union. For the past year, we have invited a new, young farmer onto our farm. In January, we have a son also returning to the farm. We are committed to the success of these new farmers by using the building blocks provided to us through Holistic Management. By redefining our farming model, we have actually created something new on our own. We are now fully responsible for all of our animals, from field to consumer.

Eric Chaurette

Eric Chaurette is a co-manager at Inter Pares, an international social justice organization based in Ottawa. Inter Pares, which means "among equals" in Latin, supports people's struggles for peace, justice, and equality overseas and here in Canada. Since 2005, when he joined the organization, Eric has worked to build greater linkages among social movements for systemic change. This includes active involvement and support for the International Ban Terminator campaign; coordinating public forums to raise critical awareness regarding science, technology and development policies, and their impacts on food sovereignty in Canada and in the Global South. Eric is also a co-founder of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, where he was Chair from 2006 to 2011, and of the People’s Food Policy project.  Before joining Inter Pares, Eric worked in environmental education and community-based conservation in remote communities of Quebec and Labrador, and in Latin America. Eric lives in Gatineau, Quebec with his family.


Barton Cutten

Barton is a farmer in central Nova Scotia, and has been a member of the Steering Committee for 2 years. He brings to the Steering Committee a blend of passion, dedication, and personal involvement in producing local food. He is also very interested in new ideas and in exploring policy direction. “Having lived and worked on our family farm helps me understand the challenges for new and existing farmers to build more local food production,” he says. “By helping to establish new community, or personal, gardens allows me to better understand what motivates Nova Scotians to grow their own food.”

Always open with an ear to listen, Barton has contributed consistently to the course of events that has unfolded within Food Secure Canada, offering the pragmatic experiences of a Farmer and aspiring public servant.  He begins with a firm understanding of food starting from the land thru to the dish, and works with a commitment to seek out new social mechanisms that will sustain the local food movement.

Barton feels his greatest accomplishment involved with Food Secure Canada was helping to get Food Secure Canada involved in the struggle to stop a proposed Mega Quarry in Dufferin County, Ontario, which would destroy over 2,000 acres of prime Canadian farmland to excavate gravel. The quarry's application has been delayed and we hope to put it to rest permanently.

Barton’s biggest commitment within FSC is to help implement the People’s Food Policy Project and wants to see Food Secure Canada play a major role in implementing the PFPP into National Food Policy. If elected for a second term at Food Secure Canada, the PFPP would be priority number one for Barton.

Katelyn Friendship

Katelyn works for Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research (AICBR -- formerly Arctic Health Research Network-Yukon). This group is a current member of FSC, with a primary focus on First Nations; Katelyn is its representative on the Northen Food Council.

Katelyn has worked across Northern Canada including Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunatsiavut and has experience across the North with First Nation and Inuit Communities. She now lives and works in Yukon, and has conducted food security research projects across the Territory, including a three year research initiative in the remote community of Old Crow , for which she wrote the final report and community report with recommendations. Katelyn has also worked on several projects that look at the effect that climate change is having on food security and health, particularly in Yukon First Nation communities.

In First Nation communities Food Security tends to have a different meaning than it does in western culture and includes access to traditional foods. It is a pressing issue across Yukon and the North. The ability to access sufficient amounts of nutritious and safe foods affects many northerners in different ways. AICBR takes a community-based approach to researching and advocating for food security issues in the Yukon and across the North, working on the ground, in communities on food security issues. Its is currently working on a Yukon-wide food security coalition, addressing issues such as childhood obesity, and community health (community gardening, access to healthy foods, etc.). If funding is achieved, Katelyn would be organizing this committee.

Lyna Hart

Lyna Hart is a Pipe Carrier and a Grandmother. She works as the Acting Tribal Nursing Officer, Tribal Home and Community Care, HIV/AIDS, Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative Coordinator at Southeast Resource Development Council.  She is active on many committees including the MB First Nations Diabetes Committee, the MB First Nations AIDS Working Group, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Health Information and Governance Committee as the Southern Co-Chair, Nursing Leadership Council and the AFN Food Security Reference Group at the National level.  She belongs to the Aboriginal Nursing of Manitoba Inc. and has served on the board of United Way of Winnipeg Aboriginal Relations Council.

 

Cathleen Kneen

Cathleen has dedicated her life to promoting social justice. She is a builder. She builds confidence in young leaders, builds networks among groups of concerned citizens, and builds solidarity among the myriad of struggles.

While farming and raising her two children in Nova Scotia, Cathleen was co-founder of the Pictou County Women's Centre and the Tearmann House for Battered Women, and with her husband Brewster began publishing The Ram's Horn, which continues as a monthly newsletter of food system analysis. Later, in BC, she worked with community nutritionists and others to form the BC Food Systems Network, which she coordinated until she left BC in 2006, when she was elected as Chair of Food Secure Canada. She was also an active member of the Board of the Certified Organic Associations of BC.

As part of the Management team of the People's Food Policy Project, and as Chair of Food Secure Canada over these past 5 years, Cathleen has shown true grit and leadership. We are where we are now, because of this unwavering commitment and brilliant leadership.

Retaining Cathleen on the Steering Committee of Food Secure Canada will help ensure that her knowledge and her stories are passed on to others at Food Secure Canada who will be carrying this vision forward. Cathleen is knoweldgeable of all the catogories listed below, but her particular sensitivity to seeking out First Nations perspectives in the food movement is a unique contribution.

 

Michel Lambert

Michel is co-founder of Alternatives, and the Executive Director since 2007. He is also a member of Alternatives International Governance Council, a member of the Boards of the APC (Association for Progressive Communications) and AQOCI (Association Québecoise des Organisations de Cooperation Internationales) as well as a member of the International Council of the World Social Forum.

 

Joe Munroe

Joe Munroe, of Muskoday First Nation, is the Indigenous Field Coordinator for the Prairies with Heifer Canada.

Through working to support agricultural cooperatives on Reserve in Saskatchewan, Joe pursues a sovereignty and nation-building approach to community development as informed by the "Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development".

Joan Norberg

My involvement in Food Security started at home, by providing food grown or raised on our own farm. The surplus is sold at the local farmer's market or at our own farm gate. I have become very heavily involved in this farmer's market and we have expanded to include a kitchen/concession that advocates using locally produced food. I have seen that living in the north has its own unique food security issues. Like a grocery truck not arriving on time for what ever reason. The result is empty shelves at the grocery store. Because of this I believe that we need to be more sustainable in our food supply. I strongly advocate small sustainable farms that network with each other to provide our communities with locally grown/raised foods.
Also, I have worked with our church (Grace Community Church) at our monthly Community Supper, a meal that we provide on holidays to enable the people at the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen to have the stat holiday off.
 

Andrea Peart

Andrea worked as the director of Health, Safety and Environment with the Sierra Club of Canada, where she worked on a variety of food security issues including safe food and sustainable agriculture, sustainable aquaculture, intensive livestock operations, pesticides and genetically modified organisms. On behalf of the Sierra Club of Canada, Andrea intervened in two Supreme court cases: the Harvard  oncomouse  and Monsanto vs. Percy Schmeiser, sat on a number of high profile federal government committees including PMAC (Pest Management Advisory Council) and the Healthy Lawns Labelling Subcommittee, was a founding member of
the Beyond Factory Farming Coalition and worked with other environmental groups to successfully stop the commercialization of Genetically Engineered Wheat in Canada.
Andrea is currently the National Representative of Health Safety and Environment with the Canadian Labour Congress, which represents 3.2 million Canadian workers, making it the largest democratic movement in Canada.
Andrea has extensive campaigning and communications experience, is fluently bilingual and currently resides in Ottawa.
 

 

Shawn Pegg

Shawn is Director of Policy and Research at Food Banks Canada. He feels it is crucial that the network of food banks in Canada have a voice and place within Food Secure Canada. It is important for two major reasons: so the broader food security/food sovereignty movement does not lose its focus on social justice; and so food banks themselves can learn from and incorporate the advances and innovations of the movement. Food Banks Canada is proud to have been part of the Steering Committee for a number of years and feels it is important to maintain our contribution.

Shawn has been the Director for Zero Hunger on the Food Secure Canada Steering Committee for 4 years. His input to the committee has been informed by consultation with the Food Banks Canada Member Council, made up of food bank directors from each province. He is a national expert on food banks, hunger and poverty, and he also brings to the steering committee a solid understanding of organizational management.

 

Wayne Roberts

Wayne has recently retired from his position as Manager of the Toronto Food Policy Council which he held since 1999. In that capacity, was involved in most of the key meetings that have led to Food Secure Canada, and he has been on the Steering Committee for 5 years and is running for a one-year term. He has also worked to help activists in other areas of the country set up food policy councils, and tried to learn about other areas by "woofing" on farms in Prince Edward Island and B.C.

Wayne is well known as a journalist and author, as well as a speaker. He earned a Ph.D. in social and economic history from the University of Toronto in 1978, and has written seven books, including Get A Life! (1995), a manual on green economics, Real Food For A Change (1999), which promotes a food system based on the four ingredients of health, joy, justice and nature, and The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food (2008). Wayne has also written innumerable articles and speeches in which he lays out clearly and with characteristic humour the critical issues facing our food system and creative approaches for positive change. He has been an active and valuable member of the Steering Committee and brings that experience along with his huge knowledge of what is happening in the food system and organizational management, as well as a profound knowledge of urban issues.

In retirement, Wayne continues to write and address audiences across the continent. Among other ongoing commitments, he is on the Board of the Community Food Security Coalition in the USA.

 

Joyce Rock

I grew up in Montreal and have recently returned home after 13 years working in BC in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside [DTES], a community of 18,000 people, two thirds of whom are nutritionally vulnerable and under-housed and about 700 of whom are homeless.

Among other jobs, I worked as a street Outreach Worker with people working in survival sex work, a Support Worker for the DTES Women's Centre, and a co-founder and Executive Director of the DTES Neighbourhood House. In all my work I used food and more importantly the Right to Food as a vehicle for Community Development. From 2007-2010 I was a member of the Vancouver Food Policy Council.

While ED of the DTES Neighbourhood House I worked within the five distinct communities of the DTES to promote dignified healthy food as a human right; created a DTES Food Charter as a complement to the City of Vancouver's Food Charter; launched multiple low-tech, (people friendly)ways to bring nutritious food to this vulnerable population (one example is the highly successful blender based Roving Community Kitchens on a shopping cart to people on the streets, and co-founded the DTES Kitchen Tables Project [www.dteskitchentables.org], the goal of which is to reform the quality, abundance and delivery of food across in vulnerable populations through the cooperation of residents, policy makers, food producers, providers, researchers and other key stakeholders. This project is transferable to other communities across Canada.

As I am settling back into my home town of Montreal, I am familiarizing myself with the good work being done in Montreal and Quebec as a whole on the food front. While an anglophone by birth I live and work in French here.

 

Colleen Ross

Colleen Ross is an organic farmer in Iroqouis, ON, with approximately 200 acres growing soybeans, grain, vegetables, beef and lamb. She is very involved in food policy and dedicated to food justice. Colleen has held several senior positions on the national board and executive of the National Farmers Union since 1996, where she is currently the Vice-President (Policy). She was one of the key people in creating and managing the People's Food Policy Project and has given many hours to Food Secure Canada over the past few years.

Through her work with the NFU, Colleen collaborates with farmers in Canada and internationally, acting together to promote global food sovereignty, and works closely with the international peasant organization La Via Campesina. Colleen is a member of the Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Commission of LVC.  She argues that rather than Canadian farmers becoming wealthy through the adoption of industrial agriculture, net farm incomes have actually dropped below zero, and questions whether this was a model we should be exporting to other countries. At the same time, through her own organic farming and direct-to-consumer marketing systems, Colleen is practicing local solutions that empower farmers, and demonstrating that by working together, we can build a brighter agricultural future for all.

 

Rick Sawa

Rick, who is a semi-retired educator, has been involved in food security for many years. He was one of the first co-chairs of Food Secure Saskatchewan and remains a member of the coordinating committee. Rick is also the chair of the Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Area Food Coalition that developed a Food Charter that has been passed in principle by Prince Albert City Council.

The 2011 - 2012 Food Secure Saskatchewan Coordinating Committee unanimously voted at our AGM on November 18 to nominate Rick as our candidate for Food Secure Canada.

 

Rebecca Schiff

Rebecca has been an active member on the steering committee of FSC for the past four years. She has been involved with conference organising, liaising with groups such as Food Secure Saskatchewan and Metro Ag Alliance for Urban Agriculture, and helping to facilitate the PFPP process in Saskatchewan. She has a deep understanding of the value of collaborative, cross-sectoral partnerships, northern food issues, community-university alliances, and the Canadian good food movement. In May 2011 Rebecca took on the role of formal liaison with the Canadian Association for Food Studies (CAFS). Rebecca is currently an assistant professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, based at the Labrador Institute in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, where she works on food security and food sustainability issues with indigenous groups in Labrador.

Rebecca would like to continue on the FSCSAC steering committee as formal liaison with CAFS. FSCSAC and CAFS are often described as "sister organizations", with one focused on civil society and the other on academic/research activities. As the two organisations continue to grow and evolve there is interest in working more closely together in the future. Rebecca would like to continue her work on facilitating collaboration between the two organisations.

Brynne Sinclair-Waters

Brynne Sinclair-Waters grew up in Georgetown Royalty, PEI, and is currently living in Ottawa, where she is working towards an MA in Political Economy at Carleton University. In her current research she is examining the local food movement in Eastern Ontario through a feminist political economist’s lens and is exploring the relationship between gender and local food economies.

While completing her BA in Political Science and History at Acadia University, Brynne acted as the student outreach coordinator and co-coordinator of the Acadia Community Farm and became passionate about local food issues, especially where they intersect with social justice. She was a proud supporter of the Acadia Community Farm’s efforts to donate to the Wolfville Food Bank and enjoyed engaging students around issues of food justice. Since moving to Ottawa she has been focused on her studies, but has also acted as a volunteer policy editor for JustFood Ottawa’s Food for All project.

Brynne has also been active organizing around issues of water justice and climate justice in both Wolfville and Ottawa and sees this work as closely connected to her interest in contributing to creating a just food system in Canada. Brynne is also interested in exploring policy opportunities that can move Canada towards a more just and equitable society. In a current research placement she is exploring policy opportunities at the federal level for regulating industrial water use. She is interested in continuing with this kind of work and exploring other policy opportunities at the federal level, particularly around the environment, water and food.

Brynne believes she could represent FSC member organizations in PEI, while also acting as one of the many young people who have become passionate about food issues and who have chosen to organize around or study these issues at university campuses across the country.

 

Tasha Sutcliffe

Tasha is a community economic development practitioner, with 15 years experience in fisheries and coastal communities. Her areas of expertise include facilitation, program management, fundraising, and enterprise development. As Program Director at Ecotrust Canada, Tasha works within a network of professionals with varied expertise including forestry, GIS, planning, and micro finance. Tasha holds working relationships with fish harvesters, community organizations, and first nations throughout B.C. Recently, her work has taken on national and international dimensions – she has partnered with fisheries groups in Nova Scotia, PEI, Newfoundland, and New Brunswick, and is a delegate from Canada at Slow Food's Terra Madre congress. Though not historically food focused, Tasha's work has been about building capacity of individuals and communities to manage their own resources and create healthy sustainable futures. She has begun connecting with food security practitioners and building related projects within Ecotrust Canada. One example is ThisFish (www.thisfish.ca), a seafood traceability initiative which uses online technology to connect harvesters to consumers, and facilitates sharing of information including who caught your fish, when, where, how. With growing interest in food systems, as well as building fisheries and fish harvesters more effectively into this conversation, she is keen to bring her experience to FSC Canada and connect this work back to her constituency.
 

Shirley Thompson

Shirley has a great breadth of knowledge on food sovereignty from her participatory research and video work with Aboriginal and other communities in Northern Manitoba. Her video Growing Hope in Northern Manitoba and other participatory videos have been a great vehicle for education about how communities are working towards food security by sharing hoes and one tiller per community despite extreme poverty, lack of infrastructure, high cost of food and regulations that prohibit sale or public use of country foods.
Dr. Thompson was the first to do a large food security survey in First Nation communities, as First Nation communities were excluded from the 2004 national CCHS 2.2. This survey included 534 households in 14 northern Manitoba communities and found 75% food insecurity in northern Manitoba with higher rates in fly-in communities. With Four Arrows Regional Health Authority and other organizations she is working on Food activist training, fish food buying club that provides a urban market for fisher people in remote communities, country food programs and school programming for gardening and living on the land with wild foods.
Her urban projects include promoting and analyzing access to local food from farmers markets, community gardens and CSAs. She is a mentor, community activist and much-appreciated supervisor for students who are interested in research on food.